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The Yankees are not facing elimination in Game 2 on Monday, but Derek Jeter warned the team cannot look at it that way.

“It’s a must-win [game],” Jeter boldly asserted during Fox Sports’ postgame coverage after the Yankees’ 1-0 loss in Game 1 of the ALDS to the Rays Saturday night.

The Yanks were shut down by Rays ace Drew Rasmussen, who tossed eight shutout innings, struck out 10 batters and allowed just one hit, a double to catcher Austin Wells, who was thrown out trying to stretch it into a triple.

With likely American League Cy Young winner Cam Schlittler slated to start Game 2, the Yankees legend said the club must capitalize on the matchup.

“That’s the approach you have to have,” Jeter added. “You have Schlittler on the mound — you must win that game.

“Tampa has been the best team in the American League all year, they are tough to beat, especially in that stadium. You cannot go down 0-2, I don’t care if you’re back to New York or not, and expect to win three [in a row].”

After dominating the Red Sox across two games of the Wild Card series, the Yankees’ offense could not muster much in Game 1.

Gerrit Cole allowed only a solo home run to Jonathan Aranda across five solid frames, which was not enough on a night where the offense was lifeless — and later compounded by Wells’ baserunning blunder.

“That Wellsie mistake, is that the reason they lost? Probably not,” Alex Rodriguez said during the postgame show.

“But when you look at the first six months, it’s a dress rehearsal for October…If you’re not accountable April through September, these mistakes are not a surprise.”

The Yankees are set to face former Mets pitcher Freddy Peralta, who was acquired by the Rays at the trade deadline in Game 2.

There is probably no one in baseball history more decorated than Frankie Crosetti. Across his years as a player and then as a coach, he was part of 17 World Series championship teams, all of which were as a Yankee. While he wasn’t a bad player — 27.8 career fWAR — he was hardly ever the star of the championship teams he played on, nor was he the manager of the teams he coached on. However, he was quite clearly helpful to have around in several capacities.

On this, “Crow’s” 116th birthday, let’s look back at the life and times of the serial winner.

Frank Peter Joseph “Frankie” Crosetti
Born: October 4, 1910 (San Francisco, CA)
Died: February 11, 2002 (Stockton, CA)
Yankees Tenure: 1932-48

Crosetti was born in San Francisco, the son of an Italian immigrant father and a mother whose parents were immigrants themselves. He would end up being one of a couple Italian-American Yankees from the Bay Area, as future teammates Joe DiMaggio and Tony Lazzeri were San Francisco-born children of immigrants themselves.

As a child, Crosetti learned baseball with his brother, using a whittled down board as a bat and the end of a corncob as a ball. He never much loved school and eventually dropped out when he was 16. He started playing semi-pro baseball out on the west coast and soon caught the attention of the Pacific Coast League’s San Francisco Seals. While the Seals appreciated his talent, they thought he was a bit too small and began sending deliveries of milk to his house every morning. He soon packed on 10 pounds and began playing for the Seals in 1928.

Over the next couple seasons, Crosetti became a very good player in San Francisco. In 1930, he hit .334 with 27 home runs, while also being regarded as a very good fielding shortstop. That caught the eye of Yankees’ scout Bill Essick, who was credited with signing DiMaggio, Lefty Gomez, and others for the team. Essick convinced the Yankees to sign Crosetti.

Even after the signing, Crosetti spent 1931 with the Seals, but reported to the Yankees for 1932. Early in the season, manager Joe McCarthy stuck with the veteran Lyn Lary at short with Crosetti at third, but by midseason Crosetti was starting at short and would hold onto that spot for much of the next decade.

The Yankees won the 1932 World Series, but Crosetti got his career off to a bit of a slow start in that season and over the next two, as the Yankees fell back to the pack in the standings. Ahead of the 1935 season, Crosetti worked with the University of California track coach and came into the season bigger, faster, and stronger than he ever had been. While he played well the following year, Crosetti went down with an injury during the season, requiring surgery on his knee.

Crosetti was seemingly running out of chances going into 1936, but he managed to keep hold of his spot in spring training. In the regular season, he then turned in probably the best year of his career. In addition to his always reliable defense, he hit .288/.387/.437 with a career-high 15 home runs. He was named an All-Star for the first of two times in his career. With that, plus Lou Gehrig, Bill Dickey, and a rookie DiMaggio, the Yankees returned to the World Series, winning the AL pennant and then beating the Giants in six games for Crosetti’s second championship.

Crosetti would never match those offensive exploits again, but he remained a reliable part of the Yankees’ roster for years to come. Besides his defense, he also became known as the most vocal Yankee in the field, with his “Crow” nickname being more than just a play on his last name. In addition to ‘36, he was part of the Yankees four-peat from 1936-39. In 1938, he would’ve had an argument for World Series MVP had it existed, as he OPSed 1.056 in the series, made a couple crucial defensive plays, and hit an eighth inning home run in Game 2 that gave the Yankees the lead for good as they eventually swept the Cubs.

As the calendar turned into the 1940s, Crosetti would start to lose some playing time, as a young shortstop named Phil Rizzuto arrived on the scene. He did get his spot back for a little bit while Rizzuto was serving in the military during World War II, but was never a regular again after that. The Yankees kept him around as a bench player and then a player-coach as the mid to late 40s came along. He would add three more championships to his collection as part of the Yankees 1941, ‘43, and ‘47 teams.

Crosetti gave up playing after 1948 and became a full-time coach, holding a role with the Yankees through 1968. He became the team’s third base coach and won another nine World Series titles over there. He was valued not only for helping younger players along, but also because he never held any ambitions to manage himself. He turned down managerial opportunities from other teams and kept with the Yankees through several managers.

After 1968, the Yankees were mired in what would become arguably the worst period in franchise history. Crosetti resigned from the team desiring to spend more time with his family on the west coast. He joined the Seattle Pilots coaching staff in their one year of existence, and then spent two seasons as a coach for the Twins. He left the MLB ranks after 1971, settling back down in California. He still stayed in the game though, and even did some high school coaching. Crosetti remained in California until he passed away at age 91 in 2002.

There have been many Yankees who have been better players than Crosetti, but based on the way baseball works nowadays, I don’t think anyone will ever become more decorated than Crosetti.

See more of the “Yankees Birthday of the Day” series here.

LOS ANGELES — On a day in 100-degree heat, the second-highest temperature ever for a postseason game at Dodger Stadium, Tarik Skubal reared back and fired a 101.1-mph fastball to Austin Riley in the second inning of the Dodgers’ win over the Atlanta Braves in Game 1 of the National League Division Series.

“ I think I was just trying to match the temperature out there,” Skubal joked after the game. “It was a hot one.”

Skubal threw three pitches at least 100 mph in the 2026 regular season, topping out at 100.4 mph on April 1 in his second start of the season while still with the Detroit Tigers. In 2025 Skubal threw 31 pitches in triple digits, including five 101 mph or higher, topping out at 102.6 mph. That was over 31 starts, but in the 2025 postseason Skubal packed 22 pitches in triple digits into just three starts.

That was just one of 94 pitches thrown by Skubal on Saturday, and the only one in triple digits, though he had four others between 99.6-99.8 mph, which could be reasonably rounded to 100. Skubal for the game averaged 98.1 mph on his 12 four-seam fastballs and 97.6 mph on his 15 two-seamers, up from his regular season averages of 96.8 mph and 96.7 mph, respectively.

“I think the juices flow a little bit different in postseason games,” Skubal said. “So when I reach back a little bit in postseason stuff, there’s some good counts to kind of let it go in the second inning. … I think environment and adrenaline and the juices flowing kind of always help.”

Skubal, who went to high school in Arizona and currently lives in the state, the heat was something he’s used to. He said as a kid he played a Little League game once in Lake Havasu in 127-degree heat. Skubal stayed hydrated on Saturday and got into a groove, retiring 15 straight batters after a leadoff single to open the game, before allowing a solo home run and two walks in the sixth inning for his only run allowed. The left-hander struck out seven in six innings, lowering his career postseason ERA to 1.97 in seven starts.

Skubal was so focused on pitching, he wasn’t even thinking about the temperature.

“I didn’t really think it was that hot out there until I got done and I walked back in the dugout. I asked — I forget who was sitting, I think it was Snell. I was like, ‘Has it been this hot all game?’ He was like, ‘Yeah,’” Skubal said. “Wow, it’s amazing what your brain can do in certain circumstances and moments. It’s amazing what you can control and kind of eliminate.”

Skubal’s performance helped eliminate one of the three wins the Dodgers need to advance, with Blake Snell waiting to pitch in Game 2 and then Yoshinobu Yamamoto on Tuesday in Atlanta for Game 3.

“To have Blake going tomorrow to follow up with what Tarik did today and knowing that you got Yama in the holster for Game 3, we’re in a good spot,” manager Dave Roberts said. “It all starts with winning Game 1.”

Good morning, folks…

Evan Grant, Time Cowlishaw and Kevin Sherrington make their predictions for the four LDS series that kicked off yesterday.

Ty France’s potential go-ahead homer for the Padres in Milwaukee hit a roof cable and ended up being caught by Jackson Chourio for an out. Sam Miller noted, as an aside, that the Padres’ #2 hitter in NLDS game one was a player who was released in August…by the Padres.

That player? Former Texas Ranger Dustin Harris.

David Laurila has his Sunday Notes column up at Fangraphs.

Welcome to SB Nation Reacts, a survey of fans across the NFL. Throughout the year we ask questions of the most plugged-in Cardinals fans and fans across the country.

Happy Sunday morning one and all.

This one is going to be even more interesting after this is over, because Tuesday when we do this one again, I am very interested to see where people are.

Going into the Arizona Cardinals matchup with the New York Giants they are 2.5-point favorites according to our friends at FanDuel Sportsbook, the first time this season they are favored, so will that play into things if they somehow do not win this game?

Let’s take a look at how you all voted this week in our Reacts polls.

The Cardinals and their fans are going the wrong direction in terms of confidence in the direction of the franchise, but wins are the only thing that will get fans on board.

Meanwhile, the reason they are so concerned is because of the Arizona Cardinals defense.

It is interesting how most people, specifically the hardcore fans, saw this defense as the issue all along, so are you more discouraged than you expected to be with the defense?

I am interested to hear your reasoning before they kickoff in a couple of hours.

The Phillies have been eliminated from the playoffs. I didn’t expect anyone to be happy about that, but it certainly seemed like some fans had a bit of a “I told you so” skip in their step about their failings. Even if you dislike the president of baseball operations, hoping that his moves fail is bizarre behavior. (I assure you that calling Dave Dombrowski “Dumbrowski” is extremely clever, but you don’t have to constantly remind us of how clever you are by doing it every time you talk about him.)

Obviously, the team wasn’t good enough this season, and that ultimately falls on Dombrowski’s head. But it feels like people are a little off on why they’re angry with him. The biggest criticism I’ve seen is that they took a team that failed the previous four seasons and “ran it back.”

They mostly did run it back, but that’s because they are largely locked into their core. Really, most people didn’t actually want to break up the core. Instead, they wanted to turn over much of the supporting cast like J.T. Realmuto, Bryson Stott, Alec Bohm, Brandon Marsh, Jose Alvarado, Orion Kerkering, and others.

The problem is, replacing over half the lineup and revamping almost the entire bullpen in one year isn’t really feasible. I suppose it is feasible, but the problem is that the presumption is that you’d replace those players with better players, and that’s the tricky part.

Free agency was largely a wasteland this past offseason. For example, nobody besides Realmuto’s agent liked the team giving him a third year, but he certainly looked like the best option at catcher heading into 2026. Don’t think I don’t remember the “Sign Victor Caritini and platoon him with Rafael Marchan” talk.

I know some people wish the team had signed Pete Alonso and moved Bryce Harper to right field. But after seeing Harper play right field the past two months, does anyone – including Harper – want that to be the norm over the next five years? And there’s also a strong possibility that Alonso’s five-year contract ages poorly.

The same issue existed with Luis Arraez. Arraez did have a good year defensively, but he also showed us why a multiple-time batting champion was readily available in free agency.

Next, take a look at the outfielders who were available in free agency, and you see it wasn’t a pretty picture. The big-ticket guys were Kyle Tucker and Cody Bellinger, and it seems like both of them were heart set on going to the Dodgers and Yankees respectively. You could make the case that the Phillies should have made a press to sign Bellinger instead of re-signing Kyle Schwarber and maintain some positional flexibility. But does that swap change much in the big picture?

Aside from that, the available players largely consisted of veterans like Austin Hays, Harrison Bader, and Rob Refsnyder.

Perhaps the Phillies could have been clever with trades, but they were sorely lacking in viable trade chips. Both of their top prospects – Andrew Painter and Aidan Miller – had some red flags attached, and they were already counting on both Painter and Justin Crawford to fill spots on the major league roster.

That brings us to the real problem: The farm system is not providing them with nearly enough. It would have been nice to plug in a home-grown player into one of the outfield spots and have him be a positive contributor, but instead, we got Crawford. (I know Crawford has his defenders, and this merits a separate article. But ask yourself this question: What is Crawford good at?)

Andrew McFarlane was a great addition to the bullpen, but the Phillies needed far more than just him from the farm. What we got was Gabriel Rincones, Jr., Alan Rangel, and Felix Reyes.

When Dombrowski was hired, he had two missions: Get the major league team back into the playoffs and rebuild the farm system that was a disjointed mess before his arrival. He succeeded on the first part, but it sure doesn’t look like he accomplished the second. And unless he can make progress on that front soon, his successor may soon be hired with the same directives.

We had some fun games yesterday. The vile Yankees were shut out by the slightly less (?) vile Rays. The vile Dodgers staved off a comeback attempt by vile Atlanta. And not especially vile Milwaukee and Chicago won fairly close games against also not especially vile San Diego and Cleveland. In the Rays game, we got the curious spectacle of a no-hitter-bid-ending double where the batter made the third out stretching for a triple, meaning Drew Rasmussen left the game without having had a hit on base.

Today we only have the NL games. The Padres and Brewers go at 4:00pm ET, and the Barves and Dodgers are slated for 8:00. Michael King (12-10, 3.21) will take on Logan Henderson (11-3, 2.47) in the early game. Blake Snell (4-1, 1.90) will go for LA in the nightcap, while Atlanta hasn’t announced a starter yet.